The Marine Video

The big issue on the international scene in the past few days, has been the viral video of the Marines urinating on some dead Taliban. It didn’t seem that it should be. It was just one of those disgusting things that happen in war.

Let’s think about this. Those 20-something young men were raised in the United States and had a moral and culturally correct upbringing. Be polite, don’t shoot anyone, cover your mouth when you sneeze, use a knife and fork, close the door when you go to the toilet, and say, “Excuse me” at proper times. In their late teens they made, possibly, the first major decision of their lives. They chose to join the Marines and are suddenly told to put on hold everything that your mama and daddy taught you. We are going to give you the most horrible weapons that you can imagine. You’ll will learn how to shoot off a man’s head at 200 yards. You’ll learn how to blow up a city block — and love it.

In all likelihood, those freshly dead Taliban were trying to kill the marines. They hate the marines because, well, those Marines are not Muslim. The Taliban would be willing to kill the Marines whether they were walking the streets of Kabul, or Topeka. Behead them? No problem.

I certainly understand that our Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, and others gave the politically correct response, but I hope that there is nothing done to the Marines that would hurt their career either in the Marines or in anything else that they choose. They don’t deserve that from their country.

I was amused to find myself on the same side as Rick Perry — a person who I have zero respect for, but I decided to hold off on publishing any comments for a few days, just in case anything else comes to light. It would have been good for Rick Perry to do the same.

In the Sunday Washington Post on page B5, I read an editorial by a Marine Captain Timothy Kudo on the significance of what his fellow Marines had done. When a Marine who has been there, talks, I listen. We all should. I’ll try to summarize:

Captain Kudo says that he commanded the unit that turned over a portion of Helmand province to the Marines that recorded that disgusting video. He said that, “In that 42 second video, those Marines undid everything that my unit spent seven months working to accomplish.” Well, a comment like that would get my attention.

He goes on, “Marines and all other service members understand intuitively the effect that this video will have on the war. Whatever comes of the investigation, this is a significant blow. Already, some are saying that this will affect the peace talks. But the consequences for the Marines on the ground will be felt in the increase in bombs under their feet and the bullets flying by their heads. Before I left Afghanistan, we worked with the local government to install cellular towers in the area where this video was shot. Now, with a basic cell phone from the local bazaar, members of the Taliban can show villagers at every shura in the district what Marines do to Muslims when they’re dead.”

He concludes, “We know, there is no moral grey area when dealing with the dead. When you’ve killed your enemy, the fight is over — and in Afghanistan you hand the bodies over for a Muslim burial. If we can handle Osama bin Laden’s body with respect, we can do the same for an insurgent fighting for what he believes is his family pride.”

OK, I am convinced. I did not absorb the significance of what those Marines have done. The politicians, Secretary of State Clinton, Secretary of Defense Panetta who criticized what the Marines had done were just doing the best that they could in damage control. The rest of our would-be political “leaders” should ALWAYS shut up until they fully understand the ramifications of what they plan on saying. I didn’t seem to have any trouble doing it. Actually, the other candidates didn’t either. Rick Perry has said, “What’s really disturbing to me is just, kind of, the over-the-top rhetoric from this administration and their disdain for the military”.

What is really disturbing is Rick Perry. He is an ignorant pest. His stupidity knows no bounds. He hasn’t learned a thing. He is a disgrace and a walking disaster. He defended what the Marines did by pointing out that during World War II, General Patton urinated in the Rhine River, and Prime Minister Churchill urinated on the Siegfried Line. What? People probably still do that. Does Rick understand that the Siegfried Line and the Rhine are geographic locations?. They are not people!

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One comment on “The Marine Video”

This happens in wars that last too long. At the beginning of a war, the troops are the best. Discipline is high. As the war continues the American people begin to shy away from the war. New recruits are hard to find. So What happens? Standards are lowered and the trash is allowed to come in. People who would never be allowed to join in normal times easily become part of the military. So we have the incidents that we saw recently in the news. During the Vietnam war it was the same thing. By the end of that war Americans troops were killing old men, women and children. …The war in Afghanistan has lasted way too long. Now we are having problems.

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